This study investigates how the establishment of blame becomes a framework for sensemaking in a national policy subsystem. Using the only two fatal accidents in NASA's manned space flight history as case studies, this dissertation examines how the space policy subsystem responded to these two accidents and the process by which culpability was established. This dissertation extends our knowledge of how the blame dynamic operates within a policy subsystem and how, through this assignment of blame, the policy subsystem and the nation makes sense of these tragic events. Three distinct literatures (i.e. policy subsystems, sensemaking, and blame) are brought together to describe this complex blame environment. The conclusions of this research are that the membership of the space policy subsystems increases following a disaster; the locus of the blame attribution rhetoric rests with Congress and the media, which are members of the space policy subsystem; those who were blamed for the Apollo 1 and Challenger disasters were from both NASA and the contractor; and their culpability was publicized. The space policy subsystem assigns the blame to its members and the process of blaming becomes the framework by which the Nation makes sense of the disaster. / Ph. D.

Expressed emotion (EE) is a measure of the family environment reflecting the amount of criticism and emotional over-involvement expressed by a key relative towards a family member with a disorder or impairment (Hooley, 2007). Patients with high EE relatives have a poorer illness prognosis than do patients with low EE relatives. Despite EE's well-established predictive validity, however, questions remain regarding why some family members express high EE attitudes while others do not. Based on indirect evidence from previous research, the current study tested whether religious and nonreligious coping and shame and guilt about having a relative with schizophrenia serve as predictors of EE. A sample of 72 family members of patients with schizophrenia completed an EE interview, along with questionnaires assessing situational nonreligious coping, religious coping, and self-conscious emotions. In line with hypotheses, results indicated that nonreligious coping predicted EE. Specifically, less use of adaptive emotion-focused coping predicted high EE. Also consistent with predictions, religious coping predicted high EE above and beyond nonreligious coping. Finally, higher levels of both shame and guilt about having a relative with schizophrenia predicted high EE. Results of the current study elucidate the EE construct and have implications for working with families of patients with schizophrenia.

abstract: While there is a good amount of research focused on sex offenders as a whole, only a limited number of studies examine variations within these offenders, how people view the variations, and why their opinions may differ. This study focuses on the interconnections among gender norms, rape myth acceptance, and the perception of sex offenders by administering an online student survey. The survey measured rape myth acceptance and adherence to traditional gender roles to see how they affected perceptions of sex offenders. Perceptions were measured using vignettes that were varied by gender and the situation described. Results showed that higher rape myth acceptance would decrease the blameworthiness of the offender, that the offender was seen as more blameworthy when the offender was a male, and that women tended to see the offender as more blameworthy than men did. The type of sexual situation did not have an impact on blameworthiness, nor did adherence to gender roles. The findings support past research that suggests that rape myth acceptance can impact people’s opinions about offenders in sexual situations and specifically that these opinions differ depending on the gender of the offender. With some offenders being viewed as more blameworthy than others, it is necessary to examine sex offense laws to see how they may disproportionately affect some offenders and implement harsher punishments than the public may deem necessary. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Criminology and Criminal Justice 2018

This thesis investigates the relationship between our rational capacities and the norms that govern our practice of blame. The conclusion it reaches is rather shocking: it is impossible to satisfy the conditions of blameworthiness. The argument that reaches this conclusion is what I call an internal criticism. Unlike other skeptical arguments about moral responsibility, the one advanced in this thesis does not depend on any metaphysical theses external to the theory of blame. The thesis begins by looking at a position I call rational capacity compatibilism (RCC). My interest in RCC concerns the fact that it has done more than any other theory of responsibility to set out the relationship between our rational capacities and the practice of blame. I use the most well developed RCC view—that of R. Jay Wallace—as the backdrop for the skeptical argument that follows I next defend a recent argument advanced by Gideon Rosen according to which an agent cannot be blameworthy for a given act if akrasia does not occur somewhere in the act's etiology. This serves as the first major premise in my skeptical argument. Next, I turn to the second major premise of my argument, which is comprised of two controversial claims. The first is that akrasia results from a failure in one's rational capacities. The second is that an agent cannot be blameworthy for committing any act that results from a failure in his or her rational capacities. Together, these two claims produce the following premise: when an agent acts akratically she cannot be blameworthy for that act. Now, for any given act, either akrasia occurs in that act's etiology or it does not. If it does not, then the agent in question is not blameworthy (first premise); but if akrasia does occur in the act's etiology, then the agent in question is still not blameworthy (second premise). It follows that for any given act, the agent who performs that act cannot be blameworthy for so acting. I end with a brief discussion of what I call "the moral up-shot" of my skeptical argument: what does a world without blame look like? I suggest, contra the main party line (often associated with P.F. Strawson), that blame is not a requirement for significant and meaningful interpersonal relationships, nor is it a necessary component of morality.

abstract: This dissertation puts forth an account of moral responsibility. The central claim defended is that an agent's responsibility supervenes on the agent's mental states at the time of the action. I call the mental states that determine responsibility the agent's quality of will (QOW). QOW is taken to concern the agent's action, understood from an internal perspective, along with the agent's motivations, her actual beliefs about the action, and the beliefs she ought to have had about the action. This approach to responsibility has a number of surprising implications. First, blameworthiness can come apart from wrongness, and praiseworthiness from rightness. This is because responsibility is an internal notion and rightness and wrongness are external notions. Furthermore, agents can only be responsible for their QOW. It follows that agents cannot be responsible for the consequences of their actions. I further argue that one's QOW is determined by what one cares about. And the fact that we react to the QOW of others with morally reactive emotions, such as resentment and gratitude, shows that we care about QOW. The reactive attitudes can therefore be understood as ways in which we care about what others care about. Responsibility can be assessed by comparing one's actual QOW to the QOW one ought to have had. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Philosophy 2011

abstract: This study examined the effects of victim characteristics and past life experiences on attributions of blame to human trafficking victims in hypothetical scenarios. Specifically, this study investigates the main and interaction effects of the victim’s race, age, and victimization disclosure on outsider’s perceptions of blameworthiness. A factorial vignette survey that provided information about a victim altering her race (Black or White), current age (15 or 21), and availability of victimization disclosure was given to a university-based sample (N = 592). Utilizing three-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) for the analysis, the results showed that the main effects of the victim’s age and victimization disclosure significantly influenced attributions of blame. The results also indicated that there are significant two-way and three-way interactions. The conclusion highlights the importance of these findings as well as avenues for future research and potential programming. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Criminology and Criminal Justice 2020

No description available.

Prior research has shown a correlation between public stigma and emergency responders' perceptions of mental health patients while providing care. However, research examining public stigma and emergency responders' perceptions of mental health patients is limited in rural areas. The purpose of this study was to explore possible relationships between the dependent variable, public stigma, and the independent variables: social distance, blameworthiness, and fear of unpredictable behavior. Link's modified labeling theory was the theoretical framework for this study. A sample of 92 emergency responders obtained from Facebook completed a questionnaire that consisted of three Likert scales. A multiple regression showed little correlation between public stigma and social distance, blameworthiness, and fear of unpredictable behavior. Only .077 of the variance in public stigma was explained by the combination of independent variables. This study has demonstrated a possible shift in societal attitudes toward mental illness. It is important to determine the cause of this change in results so that continued education regarding mental health awareness may positively affect social change.

Previous research found gender to be a primary consideration of judges in terms of actions towards defendants. Blameworthiness, the combined effect of criminal history, offense severity, and the defendant's role in the criminal event, is also known to impact judge's actions. Little, though, is known about how gender and blameworthiness, combined, may be related to judges' actions towards white-collar defendants. The purpose of this case study, therefore, was to explore whether defendant gender and blameworthiness impact judicial actions towards defendants charged with white-collar crime(s) in a federal district court of New York. The theoretical framework was Demuth and Steffensmeier's theory of focal concerns. Research questions focused on the impacts of defendants' gender and blameworthiness in general and with regard to bail and restitution decisions. Data consisted of published court case summaries for 1,162 criminal cases heard by the US District Court for the Southern District of New York between 2009 and 2015. These data were analyzed via an inductive coding process and then subjected to content analysis. Themes that emerged revealed that all facets of blameworthiness impacted restitution while only the seriousness of the offense impacted bail decisions. Further, gender was found to impact judge's actions in subtler ways than in prior research. For example, analysis revealed slight modifications in word choice in the case summaries that appeared to be connected to the gender of the defendant, particularly related to restitution decisions. The results of this study may be used to courts and Congress to enhance existing statutes and guidelines directed at decreasing the impact of gender and blameworthiness on defendants by the justice system.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-08-10T10:47:42Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 TAMARA RIGO GUIMARAES DE MACEDO BENTO.pdf: 1144359 bytes, checksum: 0f21c578090159f6f762c7c8bd1b417f (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-12-14 / The intense increase of aggressions against the nature goods has terrified the humanity, since mankind has faced the uncertainty of its fate in the nature, experiencing disastrous environmental tragedies. Therefore, the human conscious concerns around this issue has reached the juridical conscious as well through the normalization, which is sometimes fragile and sometimes solid, however, clearly attempting to follow the transformations and the society perspectives. Thus, with the scope of ensuring and give effectiveness to the environment dictates, focusing on its preservation and protection for the present and future generations, the State, undoubtedly, develops a non substitutable role as far as environmental management is concerned. Thereby, the Public Power, as the tutor of the environment, endues itself with attributes and mechanisms the allows it to ensure the environmental safety, which qualifies themselves in powers that when inserted in the positive law create to the State special acting rights related to the public right. Such prerogative consists on the police power, which is a Public Power activity that has the goal of establishing limits and disciplines rightness, interests and freedom, ruling the acts or omissions, in order to promote the public interests and environmental preservation. As far as concerned to this aspect, when it comes to an environmental damage, no matter how deteriorated the nature is, affecting the collectiveness, it will require the State to take direct actions for the purpose of preserving the public interests, through the police power actions. Although, when the State doesn t act diligently, attending to the environmental juridical desiderata of promoting the natural resources protection, in other words, committing some arbitrariness that doesn t match to the finality being pursued, the State could then respond to the damage caused, administratively as well as in the civil and penal spheres. Therefore, the State will be characterized as the indirect polluter, since it hasn t shown any actions to avoid or put away the environmental damages. Furthermore, the extra contractual State blameworthiness causes some juridical consequences, such as the objective responsibility appliance and the State joint liability to the real damage causer (direct polluter). / A intensificação das agressões aos bens da natureza assombra a humanidade, haja vista a incerteza do destino do homem no espaço natural, diante de desastrosas consequências causadas por diversas tragédias ambientais. Assim, a preocupação despertada pela consciência humana alcançou a consciência jurídica, por meio de normatização, ora frágil ora sólida, mas com a nítida tentativa de acompanhar as transformações e perspectivas da sociedade. Destarte, com escopo de assegurar e dar efetividade aos ditames relativos ao meio ambiente, com vistas a preservação e proteção deste para as presente e futuras gerações, o Estado exerce, sem dúvida, papel insubstituível na gestão ambiental. Dessa forma, o Poder Público, na qualidade de tutor do meio ambiente se reveste de atributos e mecanismos que lhe permite assegurar a proteção ambiental. Tais se qualificam em poderes, os quais, inseridos no direito positivo, revestem o Estado de prerrogativas especiais inerentes ao direito público. Tal prerrogativa, consiste no poder de polícia, sendo atividade do Poder Público que tem por objetivo limitar ou disciplinar direito, interesse ou liberdade, regulando a prática de ato ou abstenção de fato, com vistas ao interesse público e a preservação ambiental. Nessa vertente, ao se deparar com um dano ambiental, qual seja a degradação da natureza, que afeta toda a coletividade, este demandará uma atuação direta do Estado para resguardar o interesse público, por meio do exercício do poder de polícia. Todavia, quando o Estado não atua de forma diligente no cumprimento do desiderato jurídico ambiental de proteção dos recursos naturais, ou seja, comete alguma arbitrariedade que não condiz com a finalidade colimada, este poderá ser responsabilizado pelo dano causado, nas esferas administrativa, cível e penal. Logo, este figurará como poluidor indireto, haja vista que não atuou no sentido de afastar a lesão ao meio ambiente. Ademais, a responsabilização extracontratual do Estado enseja algumas consequências jurídicas, tais como a aplicação da responsabilidade objetiva, bem como a responsabilidade solidária deste para com o verdadeiro causador do dano (poluidor direto).